Now More Than Ever: Just Write

Writers are as different as the stories they produce, and their ideal writing environments vary no less. One thing most writers agree on, though, is that one of the toughest challenges is overcoming distraction. At WordPress we’ve always believed that when you’re using the application, the focus should be on what’s most important — your content. In the spirit of making things faster and simpler, today we are introducing a couple of changes to your dashboard that will make it easier for you to just write.

A Fresher, Faster Dashboard

The most noticeable change is that the dashboard looks a little different. Nothing drastic, just a little facelift intended to make managing your content easier. Moving the left menu up means more room if you tend to keep a couple of sections open at the same time. Fiddling with the font sizes in the header also created more vertical space, so you can make your writing window/post box bigger on the editing screens (you can drag the lower right corner if you use the Visual editor, and/or change the default height of the writing window in Settings → Writing). We’ve also replaced the icons in the Visual Editor toolbar with new ones designed by Ben Dunkle, the same person who designed the navigation icons for the dashboard, that we think are less distracting and fit better. You’ll also be saying goodbye to the “New Post” button that used to live in the header. We’ve added an “Add New” menu to the admin bar instead, for faster, easier content creation. Oh, I almost forgot — we’ve made a number of performance improvements to make everything in the Dashboard run just a little bit faster. Yay!

Goodbye, IE6

With this update, WordPress has discontinued support for Internet Explorer 6. It has required increasingly complex code trickery to make the WordPress dashboard work in the IE6 browser, which was introduced 10 years ago and does not support current web standards. Even Microsoft is counting down to IE6’s extinction! If you try to log in to your Dashboard using IE6, it will be pretty broken — but don’t worry, you’ll see a red alert box that provides a link you can use to upgrade. What do we mean by broken? This is how the new dashboard looks in modern browsers:

WordPress viewed in modern browser

…and this is what it looks like in IE6:

WordPress viewed in IE6 browser

So please, if you’re still using IE6, upgrade!

While we were at it, we started looking at other older browsers, and it makes us cringe a little when we see people using them, because the web could be so much better for them (not to mention more secure) if they would update to their favorite browser’s current version. Starting with this update, if you log in to your WordPress site using an outdated browser, an orange alert will appear on your Dashboard screen letting you know, and will provide links to the browser updates and to Browse Happy, where you can learn a little more about your options.

Approve and Reply

This is a small improvement, but it feels huge. If you’re like me, sometimes you might not want to approve a comment unless you have written a reply. It used to be that if you clicked to reply to a pending comment in your Dashboard, your reply would be published but not the original comment. I know, I know, it’s not like it is difficult to click on Approve. But! We’ve made it better anyway. :) Now when you reply to a pending comment, the submit button will say “Approve and Reply,” and will perform both actions at the same time. After using this for less than a minute I was completely hooked.

Introducing Distraction-free Writing

The other big change — one that we love — is a major upgrade to the full-screen writing experience. The normal posting screen is great: you can set it up the way you want it, and you can add and edit every piece of metadata related to your post in addition to writing it. Sometimes you just want to focus on writing, though, without all the extras, right? If that’s how you feel, you may have used the full-screen writing mode in the Visual Editor before, accessible by clicking a blue screen-shaped icon in the top row of the toolbar. That full-screen mode took up the full browser screen, which was cool, but then your lines of text went all the way across, making it harder to read and edit your creations. The Visual Editor toolbar stayed up top, which was handy if you wanted to add a picture or a link, but was a little bit distracting because of the colors. And if you zoomed or resized your browser, that was not good.

Everything about this feature revamp is designed to relax you, and allow you to find your groove without distraction. There’s a lot to point out — because hey, we’re proud of it — and the new look is quiet and deceptively simple.

It’s available for all users, whether you use the Visual Editor or HTML. Visual Editor users will notice a more laid-back icon to enter distraction-free mode, and HTML users will see a new [fullscreen] button. Click one and you’re on your way.

Distraction-free writing mode still takes over the browser window, but the writing area is optimized for a comfortable line length and easy reading and editing. Editor styles set by themes are also supported.

The formatting header is shown when you first arrive on the screen, to orient you, then fades away so you can focus on your writing. Move your mouse to indicate that you want access to these items and it will magically reappear.

Only the most-used formatting and embedding icons are shown, reducing visual noise, along with a Save button in the upper right (you’ll need to go back to the regular editor to publish), and the word count in the lower left.

Distraction-free writing, with toolbar (move mouse to activate)

Completely distraction-free

Keyboard shortcuts are supported.

You can switch beween Visual and HTML modes while in distraction-free writing mode.

Have I mentioned how restful this screen feels when you’re writing? Well, I have now. :)

I never used to like full-screen mode for writing, but I love distraction-free mode. Try it, and I bet you will, too!

Tip: make your browser go full screen if you really want to be distraction-free. Press F11 on Windows, or Command+Shift+F on a Mac. To disable full screen, use the same keyboard shortcut, or move your mouse to the top of the screen to reveal the menu.

Get Featured on Freshly Pressed

We hope you’ll enjoy these updates as much as we do. As always, let us know what you think, but this time, let’s mix it up:

If you encounter a bug, something looks weird/broken, or you need help with the new distraction-free writing feature, please let us know in the special distraction-free writing support forum instead of leaving a comment about the problem on this post. Note that we’ll be continuing to touch things up as needed based on your feedback for the next couple of weeks.

To comment on the new distraction-free writing feature, go try it first! Write a post and see how it feels. Give it a “just write” tag. Then come back and tell us what you thought about the experience and give us your feedback in a comment on this post. Include a link to the first post you wrote in dfw mode so we can check you out.

I will personally read every first “just write”-tagged post that is linked in the comments within 48 hours. I will (completely subjectively) choose my five favorites posts and feature them on Freshly Pressed, and will also send the authors a WordPress swag pack (buttons, stickers, maybe a surprise or two) as a prize. Note: I am easily swayed by correct spelling and grammar, so be sure to make use of the built-in spelling and grammar checker!

Update 5/31/2011: I chose my winners! With hundreds of posts to read I couldn’t narrow it to 5, so I filled up Freshly Pressed today with my picks. Here are the winners in no particular order:

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So far, I have used google docs to write my blogs, then copy and paste them in. I really do like the google interface for writing. However, I will give the new distraction free writing feature a try. Thanks for the update to the dashboard.

Did you see the Google Docs feature we launched recently? In the end, whatever works best for you: that’s what we want you to use. It’s your blog, after all, we’re just the middle man! An awesome, helpful, creative middle man (on our good days, anyway), but what’s most important to us is that you feel at home here and have the tools you need.

Woo hoo!
If there’s one website I’ll visit every single day and still want to do it more with every passing day… it’s WordPress!
You guys come up with something so often it’s surprises me how other blog platforms out there still exist! WP is like the Google of blogging, ha ha.

If there weren’t other platforms to challenge us, we’d probably just get lazy, sit around, engage in evil laugh competitions, and eat strudel or something. Hmm… if anyone is headed to WordCamp Raleigh this weekend (I am!), bring strudel! :)

I have to tell you that I am constantly impressed by the level of dedication of the WP team to providing new innovations for the community. I don’t use all of them and there have been some that I have not liked all that much; but most are terrific and, what is more important, it is clear that the WP team takes its job seriously and cares about its bloggers.

1) I’m seeing the dashboard in IE6 and it looks exactly like the “modern browser” pic (except I’ve got it set to blue instead of gray).
2) For much of the day, I’m away from a computer where I have control over the browser, or any other aspect of what’s installed on the computer. During this significant portion of the day, I’m forced to use IE6 not by choice but by corporate inertia. During such a day I may have breaks or other opportunities for a little free time, and at such moments I like to have the opportunity to interact with my blog readers or write up a post… Might I suggest that the majority of your users who are using “outdated” browsers are not doing so by choice?

Right now, everything to do with my subscriptions is defaulting to the Freshly Pressed page. Most stats are unavailable, and I don’t really see anything new that would make the glitches worth putting up with.

I really love the new look! The new distraction free posting is very nice on the eyes. I’ve still got my fingers crossed for some kind of follower widget (I’m jealous of all the Blogger users with Google Friend Connect). One day, hopefully :P

Looooove it. I’ve sometimes been drafting longer posts in simple text editors precisely for that distraction free approach — now I can do it right on WordPress (especially nice since one of my computers is a CR-48 Chromebook).

I’m excited to try it out right away. But even before I do, I can already tell you that before the redesign there were two points where one could collapse the menus to icons. Now only one. On my netbook using Chrome (more real estate above the fold to begin with), this now involves a lot of scrolling to the very bottom of the menu list. That second collapse point would make a great redesign perfect.

Thanks for listening, Jane (and don’t be a stranger; it’s been a while since you were last here!)

Thanks Jane and WordPress. This all sounds great, truly. I’m new at wordpress and love it. You truly are a very comprehensive forum. Of course, I need to spend more time in support forums for managing page issues….so any new features to make it easier on newbies is appreciated. Have a great day, Nan Collard, Nursenan

I especially love the way that the options bar (that allows you to link text, italicize, etc.) slides down the post with you as you scroll, and the way that everything fades away after a few seconds. Surprisingly, it really DID help me focus. Thank you all for constantly improving the functionality of this site!

I seriously miss the New Post link on the header area. This helped me hit “New Post” on a hurry (specially when inspiration strikes you know, just like now ;) ). Please consider putting it back. Putting it back will not make the new design look ugly at all.

I am so excited about the new additions. I just last night updated the app for my blackberry 1.5, and I just love the new finessed look. It’s smooth. Not only what I am writing looks amazing, but the menus are fantastic. WordPress really went in on their upgrade. I am quite happy to see beauty when I blog on the go. I have no complaints.

Overall I love the upgrade. And I understand removing the New Post button from the top, but that button also had easy access to the drafts section. I really miss that as our site tends to have lots of drafts that are worked on over a couple of weeks.

Count me in the “I don’t like it at all one bit either” camp. All crammed and shoved together with that tiny, ugly font….The whole thing is not at all aesthetically pleasing. On the other hand, I appreciate the FREE blog, FREE, free, free…. so why am I complaining again…. :)

One of our commit-level core developers uses Opera exclusively, and we did test with it. Which version are you using? Can you send a screenshot to support so we can see what you are seeing (first make sure you’ve tried clearing your cache). Thanks!

Because my hands don’t work very well, I recently switched to the Dvorak keyboard layout. I am getting used to it, but M and W are still a struggle (that finger doesn’t really work anymore). Sorry for the typo, though I had already corrected it by the time I saw your comment.

I like the distraction free writing. In the beginning, the formatting header was appearing and disappearing while I didn’t touch my pc. Luckily, it stopped while I was writing. I also like the new ‘Add New’ button on the admin bar.
The new design is a little bit… colourless. I like the simplified menu on the left, but I miss some colour in the new design.

I don’t like it. I write a post, then save it in draft to revisit later on. The old style had a button at the top of the tool bar to quickly access drafts. Now I have several more steps in the new advanced tool bar to reach the drafts.

Not to be a party pooper since I do like the changes in general, but some of the advanced offerings, like underline or text color and media postings, aren’t available in fullscreen and I use the advanced controls a lot, especially spellcheck and the picture and video features. I do like that I can go into HTML mode in fullscreen and how well it cuts the distractions.

Maybe instead of the new design being that bad, it’s just that I have an old browser. When I logged in, there was a little box that said: It appears you have an old, unsupported version of Firefox browser. I don’t have Firefox, I have Flock. Is this why the upgrade doesn’t look so good?

Flock is built on top of Firefox, that’s why you’re seeing that notice. You should probably think about picking a new browser, as Flock ceased development a while back. Flock recommends Firefox or Chrome as replacements.

I just tried the “just write” option and loved it! It felt much more creative and I didn’t realize how cluttered the other page felt until I tried this one. Even so, I am glad you kept it easy to add images as I like to do that while I am writing. Thanks Word Press!

None of the screens — or their menu items — have moved, and stats are right where they’ve always been, so I’m not sure why you say you can’t manage a blog anymore. You might want to contact support for assistance.

I really love the distraction-free writing feature. I like to write stories and with this new feature was able to completely focus on what I was writing without being distracted by all the options and buttons. I’m loving it! I wrote this little story… http://zaiuregrey.com/2011/05/19/beneath-the-sky/. :) Thanks for the new features! :)

Nice update, but it’s going to take some time getting used to it. I’m already raising my eyebrow left and right. For now, I like the old dashboard better, but as time ensues I’ll probably be used to the new ‘faster’ dash very quickly. Thanks!

Nice, I already used some of the features, I especially love this thing where you use previous posts as a sample for the new one.

One thing wasn’t working, though:
I tried to make a new category for my new post and it didn’t appear in the right sidebar. But when I clicked on Categories in the left dashboard-sidebar, it was there.
So I copied the entry, refreshed the “new article”-page, the category appeared and I just pasted my text, but it would be nice if that would be fixed, of course.

Thank you, before I did get distracted with all the buttons and I never liked going to the full screen mode till now.
I’m happy that this update is not a drastic change and I don’t have to go relearn WordPress.

I completely agree with you. The tips and blog post announcements that appear in those alert boxes should not be persistent. The logic on how those are displayed needs to be improved, and I would like to add the ability to dismiss notices without having to follow the link. One step at a time!

Thanks for the updates and the new Distraction Free Component. I really like it a lot. I love to write and this is right up my alley (bad pun intended!) Thank you for all your hard work. I have just entered the world of blogging and I am completely impressed with the set up here. I feel very much at home and the format is so conducive to my writing style. Please feel free to check out my blog, especially the post about this feature…

I like it, it’s very slick and tres cool… but the Dashboard is still missing the Random Blog arrow, which was one of the coolest features on WordPress, as well as the ‘Add To Blogroll’ button, which was extremely handy to have. Other than that, great job.

Well, I must say the new style is VERY eye-friendly, especially with bloggers such as myself, who have poor eyesight to begin with. It also looks very nice with Firefox Mozilla, which I very recently switched over too. Bravo and props to all involved!